Samsung Galaxy S III Mini with NFC to go on sale this month

The Galaxy S III Mini was launched in October, and while it does closely resemble the Galaxy S III in terms of looks, it’s not really just a smaller version of that – as its name might imply. Instead, it’s a decent midrange device, though one that is still a tad overpriced considering its specs. Samsung may be banking on those looks that might fool some into buying this as an S III, and not as a 4-inch midranger.

The Samsung Galaxy S III Mini with NFC will be out in the UK in January. We have no word yet on the launch status for other territories, so you may see it elsewhere at around the same time, or maybe not. It’s not even clear where else this version will be released.

But if you’re in the UK and have decided that the only shortcoming of the currently selling S III Mini is its lack of NFC, then you’re in luck. After a short wait, you’ll be able to purchase the phone of your dreams.

The Galaxy S III Mini with NFC will be identical in all respects to the Galaxy S III Mini sans NFC, save for that one feature of course. The new handset will also naturally support Samsung’s S Beam function, which pairs NFC with Wi-Fi Direct for fast transfers between devices.

Pricing for the new version is unknown as of now, but we can’t imagine it will be much more expensive than the non-NFC variant.